Community Education

Communities In Schools suspends services at Harbor Heights, Purdy

Communities In Schools of Peninsula will suspend its program at Harbor Heights Elementary and its after-school tutoring program at Purdy Elementary.

CISP also will suspend service at Marcus Whitman Middle School in the South Kitsap School District amid what the organization called a difficult “funding landscape (that) has affected many nonprofits in our state.”

Lost grants

Communities In School Peninsula Executive Director Colleen Speer said the nonprofit recently learned that a key Pierce County Violence Prevention Program grant would not be renewed. Meanwhile, three foundations that previously supported CISP “sunsetted” their grants.

“It’s just really hard times for nonprofits this year. … It’s not a good feeling to suspend services that are so desperately needed,” Speer said. “But our intent is to get through this and look for more funding streams.”

Communities In Schools characterized the suspension of the programs at Harbor Heights and Purdy as temporary. Services at other Peninsula School District schools are not impacted.

Peninsula School District Chief of Schools Michael Farmer hailed the district’s “long-standing partnership” with CISP. 

“While the footprint of CISP services may look different moving forward, the district remains fully dedicated to ensuring our students do not lose access to essential wraparound support,” Farmer said. “We will continue to support students through our current staff and resources, including school counselors, after-school programs, community partners, and specialized programs that maintain a robust safety net for our student population.” 

Communities In Schools Peninsula

CISP is the local affiliate of a national organization that works in more than 3,500 schools in 29 states and Washington, D.C.

The Washington state chapter of Communities In Schools has been active since 1991 and works in more than 200 schools. In Peninsula School District, those include Gig Harbor, Peninsula and Henderson Bay high schools; Goodman and Key Peninsula middle schools; and Discovery, Evergreen, Minter Creek and Vaughn elementary schools.

Under an agreement with the school district, Communities In Schools provides site coordinators who work with the principal, counselors, school nurses, social workers and others.

The idea is to fill in gaps in services available to students.

Key priorities include providing for basic needs, supporting mental health and getting chronically absent students back on track. In practice, that can mean site coordinators do everything from making sure kids have access to meals away from school to setting up free eye exams.

“We’re kind of known as the champions of connecting community resources for the students. Especially if they’re living in poverty or homeless,” Speer said.

Why Harbor Heights and Purdy

At Purdy Elementary, CISP operated an after-school tutoring program with about 150 volunteers. Communities In Schools will attempt to shift the volunteers to other schools.

The organization scrutinizes a mountain of data in choosing which schools to serve. That includes scores on standardized tests, rates of students who receive free and reduced-cost meals and what other services are available at the schools.

In finalizing its budget for the 2026-27 school year, Speer said, the organization’s board had to re-examine that data to decide where to cut.

“We needed to pull back, unfortunately, because we lost some grants. We just can’t afford to go back there,” she said.

Communities In Schools Peninsula has a budget of $1.5 million for the ’26-27 school year, Speer said. That’s down from $1.6 million in ’25-26.

No CISP employees based in Peninsula schools will be laid off, because the site coordinator at Harbor Heights retired.

Local fundraising

Though Communities In Schools Peninsula is part of a national network, local affiliates are responsible for almost all of their own fundraising.

And in general, those efforts have been successful. CISP’s All In for Kids Benefit Gala raised about $134,000 in April.

Losing out on hoped-for grant renewals hurt, though.

Philanthropist Mackenzie Scott gave CISP $800,000 in February 2022, but the award letter asked the nonprofit to use those funds to expand its reach and build infrastructure. CISP invested “a good portion” of that money as well as using it to expand into Gig Harbor High and Goodman Middle schools.

“We still have some money in the investment portfolio, but it’s not helping our annual organizational budget any more. We’re maintaining a reserve so we can keep things going and make payroll,” Speer said.